Finishing the Nursery

We spent most of this weekend running errands and finishing up the nursery.   Here’s the photo play-by-play of the nursery projects…
Night 1 – Bookcase – We bought a bookcase at Target and Ryan let me help put it together!

Then I guess he needed a beer break while I was hard at work with the screwdriver.

Putting my feet up after all that hard work!

Ryan practicing his baby rocking technique

Finished Bookcase loaded with Cason’s books and toys.

We’ve had this monkey for a long time, I think I gave it to Ryan before we were married.  His hands Velcro together and since he doesn’t sit up well on his own, I thought he was best suited hanging on the lamp.

Night 2 – Walls! – Ryan’s brother Kevin painted canvases to spell out Cason.  We finally got the ribbon to hang them on the wall, along with the puzzles we’d been waiting to hang.
We did lots of math and put the laser level to good use!

Starting in the middle.  One Down, 4 to go!

Hanging the last one.

All done! They look great!  Thanks Kev!

And now a view around the room.
Walking in the door…
View From the Bathroom Door 
View from the closet door
I just love this little area of the room.

Hanging Curtains

Today was productive.  We got a ton done before 11:30 am which is very unusual for us.  It’s a lot easier to fill your Saturday when you leave the house at 7:45.  We headed out to the Mother’s of Multiples Garage Sale to see if we could get some deals.  But, we didn’t get there early enough to really rack up.  We did get a few things and totally raided one person’s bin of clothes that were 10-25 cents each.  Then we went to Toys R Us to buy a gift for a friend, to Bed Bath and Beyond for a curtain rod, JCP to pick up some pants I ordered, Walmart to return something and buy a few groceries and home.  Whew, busy morning. 
After a quick lunch Ryan hung the curtains (and then we headed down to Houston for the BBQ Cookoff). 

And a shot of our closet that is slowly filling up! 

Nursery Selections - Bedding

Before we knew whether Small P was a boy or a girl, I really wanted to do a red based nursery. When we found out it was a boy, Ryan immediately commented that he didn't want a Blue/Brown or Green/Brown room since we have a lot of those three colors in the house already. So, red it was.

Finding a ready-made red bedding set proved to be a challenge. Most everything is blue/brown or green/brown. The few we did find were either very "themey" with characters or trucks or letters or something, or we just didn't love them.

So I started looking for custom bedding vendors on Etsy and came across a vendor that linked buyers to the site Premier Fabrics for fabric selection. While browsing the fabrics, Ryan and I fell in love with the Phoenix Collection of fabrics. In looking to see how to order swatches, I stumbled upon an interesting piece of information... this company, Premier Fabrics, is based in Mississippi and they have a retail store in Jackson! I immediately asked my Mom if she was familiar and wouldn't you know it the store is next door to their favorite Mexican Restaurant. I sent mom the fabrics we were liking and she went by and picked up swatches. The colors were great and we decided on the Phoenix for sure.

During some other searching, I came across a different vendor (ModPeaPod) that seemed to use the same Premier Fabrics prints but had a lot more pictures of her work that gave us some inspiration. Her prices were better too!

I saw this set on her website and recognized it as the same patterns that we loved just a different color scheme.
This helped us see that the fun "Illusions" print and the Stripe really go well together and we were sold. After a few questions back and forth (she was great to work with) the decision was made. Last night we placed our order. Our bedding set will be similar to the set above, but in these fabrics:


This set is a little different style, but is pretty close to how we are using the fabrics. Striped skirt, Illusions for all "print" areas of bumper and solid red where this set has baby blue.

We also ordered striped curtains since the room we are using for the nursery gets all the morning sun.

I'm so excited to get the bedding in. I really hope it turns out as cute as we are planning and I think it will!

PS: Thanks Mom for your help!

First Purchase

Today I made my first purchase for the little one. My first moment of parenting weakness I guess. One day I'm threatening to ground him or her (which the sentence should be increased by a couple of years but I won't go into that tonight) and two days later I'm buying him/her something frivilous.

Anyway, I was at Target buying some Angel Tree Gifts when I saw these cute Paul Frank onesies in the baby section. I haven't been buying anything since we don't know the sex yet so I was just looking at how cute the selections were since I love the little monkey.

And then, to my surprise and delight, I noticed a small little detail that made the outfit IRRESISTIBLE.

Do you see it? There is no way I could leave without one of these. I picked the most unisex one I could find, in the biggest size for next year use. I hope it fits!

And with that, I think we officially have a nickname for the nameless little guy (or girl)!